Home networks have evolved from residential local area networks for connecting computers and associated devices, such as printers and displays, to comprehensive systems that interconnect many types of electronic consumer devices that can be centrally managed. Many different devices, produced by different vendors and utilizing different resources and service requirements are being developed for use in home networks. With each device, there are usually large numbers of parameters that must be properly set to ensure compatibility and functionality within the network. At present, configuration management for home networks typically entails a high degree of user interaction with the applications and device, and a potentially high level of interaction with service providers, application vendors, or other third party content providers. This is often a time consuming and frustrating process for homeowners and installation personnel.
Home networking technology has essentially been synthesized down from business enterprise networking technology where companies have information technology (IT) teams to manage, maintain, and trouble shoot problems with their networks. Home networks are typically difficult to set-up for the average mass-market consumer, and when something goes wrong, or there are problems with a device connected to a home network, the consumer does not know where or how to diagnose or knowledgably repair the problem, causing significant frustration and potentially lost use of their network and/or connected device. As such, in contrast to a business, when a device is to be connected or set-up or problems arise with home networks, the consumer must either learn the management processes themselves, or seek other trained third-party information technology specialist to help.
One of the drivers for a consumer purchase of a home network is an interest/need for having and/or sharing a high-speed (broadband) Internet connection. The businesses that provide these connections (commonly known as Internet Service Providers or ISP) to consumer households must manage their own infrastructure technology to deliver the expected service to the home. Consequently, the technology for device management is often deployed within the networks of ISPs to provision and deliver the service to a connection point/gateway device in the home. Installation requires the consumer or a third-party to connect either a network-enabled personal computer or separate home networking device(s) to that connection point/gateway in order to access and make use of the Internet services within the home. The device management system enables the ISP to manage and control their network devices to the gateway, but the system lacks the ability to manage the various network capable devices beyond the gateway point that may be used and connected throughout the consumer's home network. When problems arise with a home network, the consumer most often contacts the ISP to help them identify and solve the problem. Because the ISPs device management technology cannot manage the devices other than their gateway device, problem resolution is manually managed with the consumer, and is often done by trial-by-error. This process is costly to the ISP and frustrating to the consumer.
Third-party IT service companies have increasingly been providing network management services for enterprises, and these markets have expanded to provide similar services to consumer households to support home networks and connected devices. However, service to home networks by third-parties is typically only done when the consumer requests service to repair a problem/episode when identified by the consumer, and typically requires a technician to be on-site at the home or remotely provide the service. For managing their services, some of these service companies have deployed limited information systems to store details about services they provide to a consumer that is collected manually by the technician when he is at the consumer home. Most present systems do not maintain information about the specific configuration or state of the home network that is being serviced, or about the other home devices that may be similarly configured. Manufacturers of home networking focused devices and services may attempt to apply technology to facilitate the transparent and automated set-up of consumer networking devices and implement efficient service models for their products. At best, however, the manufacturers and service providers can only provide an isolated view of only an individual product.
Certain systems have been developed for personal computers (PC) that provide utilities for a home networking and management, and run on a standard operating system (e.g., Windows XP or Vista) to provide notifications of basic home network problems as they arise and suggest self-directed fixes to the end-user. However, these systems require the consumer to install the software on each PC on the home network (assuming the each target PC is in good operating order). Such applications do not work on devices other than PCs, and require that the consumer understands the basic principals of home networking, as well the configuration parameters of the network connected devices. Most consumers do not have this understanding, and for those that do, network setup and maintenance is often a very tedious and time consuming process. Moreover, these applications can typically only recognize and address problems on an individual device-by-device basis, and are thus limited in scalability.
Within a particular household, there are typically a wide range of users, devices, and applications that are in use for various different purposes. Certain parameters regarding usage and external information can be used to facilitate the management and control of the home network. Present home network and home network management systems do not offer efficient means for usage information to be transmitted to manufacturers and managers, nor do they facilitate the creation and transmission of directed content and services to home network users. Manufacturers and service providers typically contact users based on scheduled notices or in response to specific user queries or complaints. Such contact and communication is usually not based on any sort of intelligence that is generated within the network itself.
What is needed, therefore, is a system that assesses and uses customer behavior, usage, and market information to allow service providers to direct communication and services to the customer in a manner that is driven and adapted to actual user needs and status.